Recovery Month
BUILD THE BOAT
Genesis 6-9
Introduction
This month we begin a series of lessons about recovery - and by recovery we mean healing from the struggles, failures, and addictions that have caused us and those we love pain. In that healing, we we grow and become able to help others find their way. We might automatically begin to associate recovery with alcohol or drug abuse, but there are many things in life from which we recover - and I think we are probably all recovering from something. Ernest Hemingway wrote, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” That’s what we hope and pray for this series - that we find strength in the broken places through the healing that comes from our Abba Father who loves us with grace and mercy. We will present four mantras / sayings that we hope will help us to experience connection to God and the healing he brings. Today we go back to Genesis 6, one of the most familiar stories of the Bible.
Genesis 6 begins with the distressing news that humans had made such a mess out of things that God regretted that he had made them. There was an exception: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8). What was different about Noah? (Genesis 6:9 NLT "This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God."). God’s plan (Genesis 6:12-14a; 17-22 NIV God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood;
... am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. ) God gives Noah and his family a storm warning.
We’ve all had storms in our lives.
Some because we disregarded God’s will for our lives
Some because of what other people have done.
Some just because we live in a fallen world.
Some are outward, some are inward.
They all come with a struggle - and recovery when we trust God’s guidance through them.
God’s storm warning carried with it some survival instructions: Build the Boat.
1. BELIEVE
Believe what God says about the world around us. Genesis 6:12 AMP And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction. ‘Lost their true direction …”
F. Scott Fitzgerald described alcoholism this way: “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” The world is a dangerous place and God knows it. Without God we do not get better, we always trend worse. No matter how much we believe in the human spirit and the ability we have to just make changes and get better on our own, we ultimately fail if God is not involved.
Recovery. AA First two of the Twelve Steps: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. … We Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” This closely rivals Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit is to say “I can’t, God Can, I think I’ll let Him”.
Noah didn’t try to fix the problem - he just believed an unbelievable instruction: Build a boat!
Hebrews 11:7 ESV By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
God blessed Noah and his family for Believing.
2. OBEY
Not only did Noah believe, but he obeyed the instruction of the Lord - moving beyond his thinking into action. (Genesis 6:22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.)
“Noah was obedient even though God’s instructions were hard to understand. This is one of the secrets of success in any recovery program. We may not understand how everything works, but we must do what God tells us is necessary for a successful recovery. When we step out join faith, as Noah did, God will give us the success we seek.” - Steve Arteburn, The Life Recovery Bible Third step “ We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.” Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." The idea of meekness is to turn our lives over to God, not to try to keep controlling everything ourselves.
3. ABIDE
The rainfall on Noah and his family for 40 days and nights. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days (Genesis 7:24) In our recovery, there is no easy fix, no quick solutions, no miracle moments - but a steady abiding in the grace and love of God in this journey.
Brennan Manning was asked how he could possibly relapse on his journey of recovery. He wrote in The Ragamuffin Gospel: “…Because I got battered and bruised by loneliness and failure; because I got discouraged, uncertain, guilt-ridden, and took my eyes off Jesus. Because the Christ encounter did not transfigure me into an angel. Because justification by grace through faith means I have been set in right relationship with God, not made the equivalent of a patient etherized on a table.” (via Benz)
Addiction is something one must learn to live with and monitor one’s whole life. (Benz) Whatever your sin struggle is, it’s not going away. You overcome by abiding close to the Lord in the storms. When you build your boat: Believe, Obey, Abide…
4. TRUST.
God promised Noah to always be with him, and gave him that special sign.
Genesis 9:12-17 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
We can trust God to stick with us and to see us through all the storms we go through in life.
Matthew 8:24-27 NLT “…A fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”
Conclusion: BOAT: Believe, Obey, Abide, Trust
Getting strong in the broken places is what recovery is about.
It allows us to help others who are going through the same struggles - whatever they are.
Believe God, Obey Him, Abide with Him, Trust Him.
1 Peter 3:20-21 “…God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. …”
God is faithful Always, He never leaves.
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Video of this message is available on our YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/ForsytheChurchofChrist
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Discussion Questions from Genesis 6-9
1. One observation is that the world gets worse and worse, not better on its own. So why is the world so appealing to us, sometimes causing some to wander away from God?
2. God was grieved over the condition of the world. Rubel Shelly wrote, “God’s reaction to the sinful situation of the world was grief … sadness of betrayal. … that of a parent grieving over a child who has broken a moral or civil law …” Can you think of any teachings of Jesus that speak about the Divine reaction to sin in a similar way? How is that different from our response/feelings about sin?
3. Noah was asked to build a boat. That was a pretty outlandish command from the Lord, strange even. What’s something God has asked us to do that you consider to be strange or odd or that requires you to simply trust Him in it?
4. How would you relate BELIEVE, OBEY, ABIDE, TRUST to life in relationship in the church? How important is it for those in recovery to experience relationship in the church outside of
recovery programs? How can we keep an open spirit to those kinds of relationships?
5. The Bible contains several references to the flood and Noah’s ark. We read a few of those in today’s sermon. Read the following and make any observations that come to mind. *Isaiah 54:9-10 *Matthew 24:36-42
6. Genesis 9:28-29 says, “After the flood Noah lived 350 years. Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.” As Noah neared death and looked back on his life, what do you think his primary observation might have been as he talked with his great great great (.etc) grandchildren?
7. What did you notice about this story that we didn’t talk about or that sparked your imagination?
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Resources
25 Greatest Quotes About Recovery
https://landmarkrecovery.com/25-greatest-quotes-about-recovery/
Eight Recovery Principles Based on the Beatitudes
https://goforthrecovery.com/recovery-resources/eight-recovery-principles-based-on-the-beatitudes/
Benz, Jonathan. The Recovery-Minded Church. InterVarsity Press, 2016.
Arterburn, Stephan and David Stoop. The Life Recovery Bible, NLT. Tyndale, 1998.
Shelly, Rubel. Genesis: The Beginning of Faith. College Press, 1997.
